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CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 14 July) – Flash floods triggered by a low-pressure area (LPA) east of Eastern Samar forced the evacuation of more than a hundred families in two villages here Tuesday night.
Nick Jabagat, chief of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO), said the flash floods also spilled over the Cagayan de Oro-to-Bugo highway, stalling hundreds of commuters and passengers for more than three hours.
Jabagat said the river in Barangay Tablon here also spilled from its banks, forcing residents living in shanties in Zone 1, Sitio Baloy to evacuate to the highway.
Teams from the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, CDRMMO, and the Philippine Coast Guard took turns in evacuating the residents using rubber dinghies along a narrow road alley.
Jabagat said Zone 1 has over 500 shanties living beside the river in Tablon.
“Only those whose houses with two floors did not evacuate but they were only few,” he told MindaNews by phone.
City Social Welfare and Development Department chief Teddy Sabugaa Jr. said 299 families sought shelter at the Tablon gymnasium.
Sabugaa said they have listed four houses that were totally damaged and 38 partially damaged.
He said at least 400 houses or shanties were totally soaked by the flood waters that some residents described as “neck-deep.”
In Barangay Iponan, Jabagat said they also implemented a preventive evacuation of 22 families living beside the river to Bulao Elementary School. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)